Monday Moments: The Bridge Church

Happy Monday family and friends. As I type these Monday Moments, I am at my parents’ home being rejuvenated by conversation, good memories, and good food! I was challenged a few months ago to honor my parents more by visiting, and spending quality time. As I became more intentional about this I immediately began to see the benefits in me and my family’s life. By the way, this morning my dad and I had some “cruising” time together, and some of you know how much that means to he and I! Here are the Monday Moments!

UVA OneWay:
I closed off a very busy preaching schedule last week at University Virginia with a student ministry named One Way. This ministry is specifically for black/African American students. The topic that was given to me to speak on was sex & relationships. We had a very engaging and revelatory time. Speaking about sex and relationships to young adults always yields a lot of energy and interest. The title of that message was “Purpose Breeds Pleasure”, and the emphasis was simply this: When purpose is absent we are addicted to pleasure. We live in a very overly sexualized environment. And quite frankly sex gets too much attention in many areas and not enough attention through the church/ministry. Therefore it is imperative for Christians to be bold and caring enough to hear these subjects from a biblical perspective. One of the hottest and most polarizing topics in the world and in the church is sexuality (heterosexual & homosexual). As we begin this conversation, we must understand a very fundamental truth: WE LIVE IN A FALLEN WORLD. When Adam and Eve ate from the tree, everything that was created was perverted from God’s original intent. Sin is the overarching issue that is ultimately missing in conversations such as this. Sin is when we put anything before God! We define sin as anything against the will, word, and worship of God. I would love to recap the entire message here on the blog, but a time is coming where I will give more time and space for this topic. I do want to be clear in this though: Sex was created to be a gift of marriage (between one man and one woman) with the PRIMARY purposes of oneness & reproduction (Genesis 2:4 & Genesis 1:28). Therefore it is not sex that God condemns, but it is sex outside of the marriage bond.

The Bridge Church:
I had the awesome opportunity to witness history this weekend as attended the very first service of The Bridge Church in Hampton. I want to give a special shout out and congratulations to the Founder & Lead Pastor Edwin Jones & is his wife Arial for birthing this God ordained dream. With 70% of the city of Hampton being unchurched, The Bridge Church will meet a need of many people that live in the city.
As some may know Edwin is one of my closest friends, and he was instrumental in encouraging me to walk by faith to plant DUCC, and to see him also follow his dream I am humbled and grateful to call this guy a co-laborer in the gospel, and even greater to call him friend. Congrats once again for what The Lord has done in your life Edwin. I am excited to see the hand of The Lord move through this church. Also if you are in the hampton area I encourage you to get plugged in there, or send those that you know need Christ.

The Purpose, Place, and Power of Healing
Speaking of church, I am so grateful for my team at DUCC. As we have launched into two services we have continually seen growth. I can truly say that DUCC would not be where it is, if it weren’t for the many volunteers that have contributed countless hours and effort to this ministry being successful. As I was away celebrating and supporting The Bridge Church, I had no worries that things were going to run smoothly at DUCC, and the reports have come in that things went extremely well. I want to give a special shout out to Pastor AJ for holding down the pulpit and preaching a powerful word on healing from Acts 5. In conversing with him via text, and phone I felt the power of that word challenging and propelling me to greater levels of faith. I am sure that those that attended Sunday morning were equally if not more blessed.

Hey family and friends, I hope you all embrace the presence of God in your life this week.